Media circus? A Toronto blog item on Sharks ‘dysfunction’ challenged by Wilson, McLellan and the agent of the player involved

SAN JOSE — Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in town along with the usually large contingent of reporters and camera crews.

But, strangely, the real media circus today involved a blog item about the Sharks that appeared on the web site of the respected and Toronto-based Globe and Mail by hockey writer James Mirtle and he was back home, not in California.

Mirtle wrote an item headlined “The Strange Dysfunction of the San Jose Sharks” that focused heavily on the decision to put Adam Burish on waivers and how the process played out. You can find the original blog entry here .

At this point, as the Sharks beat guy, my day gets hectic. Different strokes for different folks, but my role at that point is to track down just about everybody mentioned there for a reaction.

(I won’t chase after every “story” that shows up online, but Mirtle and the paper have significant journalistic credibility.)

Took awhile, but I got it. Everyone from Doug Wilson to Todd McLellan to Burish’s agent, Markus Lehto, took issue with different elements of what was in the original account.

And here is where you can find what I was able to cobble together from the parties’ involved. You’ll notice that the one person who didn’t want to get into any of the particulars was Burish himself, who said he wanted to focus on the future, not the past.

The present for Burish, by the way, is no longer in Worcester as the Sharks loaned him to the Chicago Wolves at his request. After all, the man still has plenty of Chicago connections and who among us wouldn’t prefer to be spending time there instead of the other AHL option.

Maybe the Sharks are not one big happy family, top to bottom. But the wagons have been circled and at least some of the facts do undercut the story line in this particular case.

****Other than the above, the news of the day focused on McLellan’s decision to keep Tomas Hertl at center with Tyler Kennedy and Tye McGinn on the wings. You can find the thinking here in an online story filed earlier.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.